Education, From The Capitol To The Classroom

Stories about students: How does education policy affect the way students learn and grow? Can schools meet their needs as they balance ramped-up testing with personal changes and busy schedules? And are students who need help getting it?

Stories about educators: How are those responsible for implementing education policy in schools − from classroom teachers, to district administrators, to school board members − affected by changes at the top? And how well do they meet their challenge of reaching students with varying abilities and needs?

Stories about school assessment: With an increased push for 'accountability' in schools, what can test scores tell us about teacher effectiveness and student learning − and what can't they tell us? What does the data say about how schools at all levels are performing?

Stories about government influence: Who are the people and groups most instrumental in crafting education policy? What are their priorities and agendas? And how do they work together when they disagree?

Stories about money: How do local, state, and federal governments pay to support the education policies they craft? How do direct costs of going to school − from textbooks to tuition − hit a parent or student's bottom line? And how do changing budgets and funding formulas affect learning and teaching?

Ms. Ritz has accused the governor of creating a new education agency to undermine her office. Mr. Pence says that was not his aim. But the tension, months in the making, has boiled over at monthly State Board of Education meetings, where Ms. Ritz and board members, who are appointed by the governor, continue to wrestle for control over the state’s education policies.

In recent weeks, Ms. Ritz, the state superintendent of public instruction, has sued the board, walked out of a meeting to prevent a vote and accused Mr. Pence of orchestrating a subversive “power grab” against the Department of Education…

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Critics have called the agency unneeded and its purpose unclear, a layer of bureaucracy added by a governor who typically favors small government. But board members said the move was necessary, accusing the superintendent of dragging her feet on issues that she campaigned against, like a new performance grading system for schools…

The first sign of a divorce between the Department of Education and the board came in May when Mr. Pence signed a larger spending bill that separated the two bodies. When he created C.E.C.I. in August, Ms. Ritz said, she learned about the initiative on the day of the announcement, despite having met with the governor just days before.

“The governor is trying to act like he’s out of the fray,” said Brian Howey, the editor of Howey Politics Indiana, a newsletter. “But at the same time his appointees are doing all this maneuvering.” Mr. Howey also said Democrats may use the feud to fuel supporters in some 2014 legislative elections.

Defending himself last month in an op-ed article that ran in newspapers across the state, Mr. Pence denied that the move had been political and said his new center “breaks down the silos” between the state’s education and work force responsibilities and “does so without taking any authority away from the Department of Education.”